Stream It Or Skip It: ‘The Enemy Within’ On NBC, A Psychological Thriller Where A “Traitor” Isn’t What She Seems

NBC seems to be good at spy shows, where federal agents have to rely on someone they consider an enemy of the state in order to bring down the most dangerous spies and terrorists. First there was The Blacklist, now Jennifer Carpenter and Morris Chestnut star in The Enemy Within. Read on for more on this show…

Opening Shot: Erica Shepherd (Jennifer Carpenter), the CIA’s Deputy Director of Operations, is walking through the National Mall in Washington, D.C. She looks like she’s on her way to a meeting, but then she notices undercover agents all around her. She kneels down and puts her hands up, allowing herself to be arrested.

The Gist: Three years later, FBI Supervising Agent Will Keaton (Morris Chestnut) and his task force is investigating a coordinated attack by a notorious Russian terrorist named Tal against CIA and Treasury Department targets. When one of Keaton’s bosses brings him in and says that the only person that can help him get close to Tal is Shepherd, currently in isolation at a federal supermax prison, Keaton balks. The reason why Shepherd is there is that she gave Tal the names of four agents who had brought down one of the spy’s operations, and they were immediately killed. One of those names was Keaton’s fiancee. But he’s ordered to make her a deal.

Shepherd has her ideas of what kind of deal she wants, including being taken out of isolation. So she comes to the outpost the team works out of, much to the chagrin of the members there. Shepherd has a keen sense of observation, due to her years of spy training, and she’s able to think like Tal and his associates, leading them to one of Tal’s higher-ups. But she also makes a very clever escape that includes bashing out her own tooth. But she doesn’t want to leave; she wants to see her daughter.

Which is when we find out why she gave up those agents’ names three years ago; Tal was threatening to harm Shepherd’s daughter if she didn’t give up the names. So she betrayed her country in order to keep her daughter safe. Which is why she’s just as eager to see Tal go down as Keaton is.

Our Take: When we say, “We liked The Enemy Within better when it was the first season of The Blacklist,” we’re not being snide. We’re telling the truth. Right down to the opening scene where the main character gives herself up in a public setting, this show feels more or less like a gender-reversed version of the James Spader show that’s having its last gasps on the same network. Only this show doesn’t have Spader to save it from its own stupidity.

How stupid is the first episode of this show? Chestnut doesn’t throw one chair, he throws two chairs, in two different scenes. Carpenter has a perpetual scowl on her face to make her look tough — the only time she smiles is when she sees her daughter. Every scene is dripping with contrived dialogue and silly coincidences that make Shepherd look like a soothsayer. The supporting characters are there just for quips. And the path of the person they have to catch — who has one of the victims of the coordinated attack stowed away somewhere still alive — is way too hard to follow. Even the scene where Shepherd gives up the names of the agents seems to make little sense, since it happens with her screaming into her phone in front of her house.

Parting Shot: Anna Cruz (Coral Peña), the agent who was abducted joins the team to look for Tal… but, what’s this? She fields a call in the hospital from Tal. Oh, no! A double agent!

Sleeper Star: Raza Jaffrey, playing FBI agent Daniel Zain, has been in much better shows with much meatier roles than this.

Most Pilot-y Line: “People say they’d die for their children, but that’s easy. Living for them is hard,” Shepherd tells Keaton after revealing what really happened with Tal.

Our Call: SKIP IT. Just go back and watch The Blacklist from the beginning. You’ll be watching a much more entertaining show.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, VanityFair.com, Playboy.com, Fast Company’s Co.Create and elsewhere.